


feastforafutureking.com

by Andromaca



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Cooking blog au, Love Confessions, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 10:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15411015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andromaca/pseuds/Andromaca
Summary: No, he wouldn’t have said he was a lucky person. No money could buy him a win at poker against Gladio and Nyx, no high IQ could have predicted falling face first in a puddle of rain water on the sidewalk while trying to open his umbrella the one time Noctis tagged along when he went to do his groceries. That was just how he lived, and he’d come to accept it.In which Ignis has a cooking blog.





	feastforafutureking.com

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fshep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fshep/gifts).



> at this point god himself could point a gun to my head asking me not to post this and id flip him off
> 
> this wasnt beta read so if youre reading this before i go through it and correct my mistakes you’re definitely braver than the us marines
> 
> this is entirely fshep’s fault.

Indulging himself wasn’t something Ignis did often. It was hard finding time for himself to relax and even harder to spend that time doing anything else that wasn’t taking a soothing bath in his apartment or taking a cat nap in the quiet, comforting silence of Citadel’s private library; over the years he’d learnt giving into frivolous pastimes was quite the impossible task, what with his schedule being full to the brim with errands at the Citadel and caring for his prince.

  
He did try, however, to _always_ cut just enough time into the daily haste to tend to the one thing closest to a hobby he had.

  
Ignis clicked on the browser on his laptop, and set to work.

  
It was easy keeping his blog updated at least once a day, his notebook ever as handy laying on the table next to the computer as he started typing down a recipe or the other. It was... somewhat calming, really, to be able to share something he loved doing with other people. And the feedback was overwhelming; he’d thought against putting his real, actual name on the blog, but then again, the fame did make him feel positively giddy. Kind of what he imagined shoplifting candies at the local theater would be like: forbidden, in theory, yet, ultimately, nothing if not petty.

  
Everyone in Insomnia knew Ignis Scientia. It was hard not to, really; if you knew about the Prince, then you also inherently knew about his Chamberlain. Yet Ignis found it quite exhilarating to know that some Lucian citizens went past his Prince’s Advisor façade, focusing onto his Chief For Leisure one, especially when his life was mostly packed with diplomatic meetings, professional handshakes and standing behind Noctis at all time, with no room for trivial forms of entertainment, neither in private nor on his workplace.

  
Ignis checked his latest post for good measure: a hit among his following, as per usual. The reviews were fantastically positive, and he scrolled through a few “I made this for my son and he loved it!”s before making to type down yet another entry. 

> Good evening, everyone. I am very pleased to see a lot of you liked my recipe for grilled fish skewers; it might be a simple dish, yet it seems that when made with care, it turns into something more.  
>  Today, I will be attempting to teach you how to make quite the difficult dessert. I got the idea for this pastry when I was roaming some market in Insomnia a few months ago, and have attempted at baking it myself a few times before. The results have always exceeded expectation! It seems Prince Noctis is fond of it, as well...

* * *

  
Ignis wasn’t one for grand gestures; he’d never shown up to Noctis’ apartment with flowers nor had he ever sung the prince a serenade, after all. He’d been wishing for years at that point, that Noctis would acknowledge his feelings without him going out of his way for the prince to.

  
Ignis cooked Noctis every meal. He cleaned Noctis’ apartment on the regular. He kept Noctis’ schedule pristinely organised. Noctis could have asked Ignis to crouch for him to put his feet on Ignis’ back, and Ignis would have done just that. Well, maybe not exactly _that_ , he _did_  have some dignity, but that was the gist of it.

  
So, Gods, pray tell, why hadn’t Noctis realised how Ignis felt, after everything he did for the prince every day?

  
Ignis asked himself that on every sleepless night, restless on his bed and kicking at his blankets, even as the clock cast an angry red shadow over his room as it signaled the time; three in the morning, and Ignis sighed. No use in staying up all night mulling over a crush like some sort of schoolgirl, he’d tried to reason with himself the first few nights he’d spent like that; as true as that was, however, he couldn’t exactly make himself get tired if he wasn’t, either.

  
His mind wandered over to the prince as he turned to the cooler side of his mattress, way too big for himself alone. _Oh, dear_ , he’d thought as the image of Noctis’ tender features falling into a relaxed smile in a memory from earlier that day came to his mind.

  
One could think it was ironic, but was it really, if no one was laughing? Ignis, for one, wasn’t; he breathed hard into his pillow to keep from screaming, as he was sure none of his neighbors would have appreciated the ruckus he’d make. It had grown progressively less cute and more incovenient, this crush of his. Gladio had teased him about it, at times; “What, prince charmless?” he’d said, when Ignis had told him.

  
“ _Prince charmless_ ,” Ignis scoffed, the dead of the night not answering back.

  
In a last, silent plea for sleep to overcome him, he fetched his earphones and phone from his nightstand, unwillingly opening the YouTube app.

  
Oh, he had it _bad_.

  
That night, for as few hours as Ignis could muster, he slept like a rock, lulled unconscious by Noctis’ voice in some interview or the other talking in his ears.

* * *

  
Ignis had never considered himself to be lucky, per se. Sure, he’d been gifted an IQ higher than most, and money. Tons of it, actually; working for the Crown was no walk in the park, King Regis knew that well, and he made sure to pay his employees accordingly. “This is for what you do for my wayward son,” Regis had said to Ignis, when he’d inquired about his salary – the king’s words, not his. He’d have spit in Cor Leonis’ face before anyone pried the word “wayward” out of his mouth to refer to Noctis – bit of an exaggeration, yes, but Ignis was _that_  confident in his loyalty.

  
No, he wouldn’t have said he was a lucky person. No money could buy him a win at poker against Gladio and Nyx, no high IQ could have predicted falling face first in a puddle of rain water on the sidewalk while trying to open his umbrella the one time Noctis tagged along when he went to do his groceries. That was just how he lived, and he’d come to accept it.  
His twenty-two years of bad luck hadn’t prepared him for what life had in for him, however.

* * *

  
Ignis went through his daily ministrations with immaculate perfection always – he justified the time he’d spend every night in front of his glowing computer screen with that. He deserved it, didn’t he? To be able to unwind the tension talking about fond memories of his Prince he had, masquerading them as recipe text posts.

  
Ignis found that it didn’t take long for the internet to catch up with his feelings, and every night he sighed deeply as even the most faceless and nameless of people figured him out and left all kinds of encouraging comments.

> cuordileone_fan: loved the recipe + the commentary. lol ignis is so cute for putting so much effort in cooking for noctis and mentioning him in every post lol please get together already. @ noctis: iggy’s husband material snatch him before anyone else does lmao. anyway the paella i made using this guide came out delicious and i cant wait to make some again for my boyfriend!

Ignis sighed. _Well, cuordileone underscore fan_ , he thought with a certain bitterness to it, _if only it was that simple_.

* * *

  
Ignis set up his laptop on the kitchen counter, and checked the time on his watch – perfectly punctual, as always.

  
He was over at Noctis’ apartment; he knew the prince wasn’t in the habit of rising before noon on Sundays, and he wasn’t keen on the idea of just throwing out the food he was planning to make, either; the two notions seemed to overlap perfectly, Ignis couldn’t quite come up with an excuse not to go along with that. He’d cook, and then save whatever dish he’d make for Noctis to feast on when he’d wake.

  
He opened his browser, and was flustered in seeing people were already gathered in the virtual room, talking about him, Ignis, being a little late.

  
The chat changed topic in less than a fraction of a second as soon as he cleared his throat, and he assumed the microphone and webcam were on and working, because people started typing-screaming about how cute he had just sounded. Which was, admittedly, a bit weird and offputting.

  
“Hello everyone,” he said, trying to sound as little diplomatical and as laid back as possible, “Let us get started, yes?” 

> ignisscientialuvr531: omgggg ur so cuteee i didnt know u had an acceeent

Ignis blushed a little, and adjusted his glasses on his nose – he couldn’t get embarrassed at every compliment, could he? It’d take him too long to get this over with: it seemed all the people online were typing down some compliment or another. “Cute?” he started, hoping to come off as funny in his attempt to ease his own tension, “I was at least expecting a ‘handsome’.”

  
Everyone seemed to be wild about that, and more messages kept coming.

> black_chocobo: wheres noctis!!!!

It was bound to happen, sooner or later, Ignis realised; being asked about Noctis, that is. Ignis pushed his sleeves up his forearms and gracefully avoided the question, smiling down at the camera led blinking on the top of his laptop as he read some other comment about his appearance out loud and responded; it seemed to do the trick, Noctis long forgotten as a new wave of compliments washed over the screen.

  
With practiced ease, he set to explaining every step of preparing a Lucian Royal Brunch, allowing himself a peek to the screen from time to time – noticing, not without pleasure, that people were still commenting on his looks, and movements, and clothing, and voice—

  
And Noctis just _had_ to wake up early, that day, as the clock struck half past ten.

  
Again, Ignis had never considered himself lucky. Not for a second in his whole life.

  
“Morning, Iggy,” and Noctis’ sleepy voice sent the chat into a panicked frenzy, excitedly going off as Ignis smiled at him and said good morning back.

> Xx_lucianlover_xX: THERE HE IS!!!! FEED HIM, “IGGY”

“Whatcha got there, hm?” Noctis said as he, very ungracefully, plopped himself down on one of the chairs sitting in front of the kitchen isle, and made to grab the computer — Ignis’ hands were quicker in sliding it over closer to himself, thankfully. “Your Highness,” he replied, genuinely hoping his smirk would hide just how much he was sweating from nervousness, “I was catching up on podcasts. Now, if you will, stop prying. Or I’ll stop cooking.”

  
Noctis pouted, and Ignis was ever so thankful that his _fanbase_ wasn’t seeing it, or they’d never let that live down.

> royal_fuckup: OUCH IGGY UR SO MEAN

* * *

**Prompto** (3:47pm):  
lol dude. u wont believe this  
(3:48pm):  
[Prompto sent you a link]  
[Prompto sent you a link]

 

> _**DAILY LUCIS XX/XX/XXX** _

**The Lucian Royal Chamberlain Is A Foodie — And If That Wasn’t Enough To Make Him The Man Of Your Dreams, He’s Also Extremely Hot**

 

> _**LUCIAN GOSSIP XX/XX/XXX** _

**The Lucian Prince Interrupts His Advisor's Live Stream And It's The Cutest Thing You'll See Today**

 

* * *

“Heavens,” Ignis said in a gasp as Gladio slowly retreated his arm, and noted in horror that the bastard was _smirking_.

  
“Yeah,” Gladio said back, all breathy and stifling a laughter that threatened to burst from his chest, “It’s all over the news.”

  
Ignis would have happily punched a hole in the floor to jump in and never come out. His blog. All over the news. The news, which Noctis was strictly obligated to read. The news, which today featured multiple articles on Ignis’ cooking blog and live stream disaster.

  
Ignis felt like he could die from sheer embarrassment alone.

* * *

“Say, Iggy,” Noctis said, elbows on the counter – _What manners_ , Ignis had scoffed mentally – as he watched Ignis carefully stir something in a pan, “Do you like me?”

  
_Just my luck._

  
Ignis kept his back to his Prince, pretending to be too caught up in his cooking to turn around, when really, it was to conceal the blush that had spread over his cheeks because of course Ignis did like him. Had Noctis not read his blog entries? Those things were basically concealed confessions. “Of course I do,” Ignis answered, “If I didn’t, I would have resigned long ago.”

  
“Sarcasm won’t get you out of this,” Noctis said back, bemused, and Ignis could hear the smile in his tone, “Look at me?”

  
Ignis turned off the stove, and turned around in a swift motion. “Content, now?”

  
“Very.”

  
“Very,” Ignis repeated.

  
“Do you like me?”

  
Lying was no use now, was it? Ignis was sure Noctis had read the papers, and therefore the articles about him. About his blog.

  
Knowing Noctis, he probably checked Ignis’ blog out as well. Ignis could barely live with the shame as it was, and Noctis inquiring about his little crush was a low blow. The lowest of blows he could deliver, in fact.

  
“I read your blog, Iggy. I’m on there a lot.”

  
“That I know.”

  
“You _like_ me.”

  
Ignis sighed. “That I do.”

  
Noctis giggled. “Do you find this funny?”

  
“ _That I do._ ”

* * *

Ignis pulled back from Noctis in what seemed to be a spur of rationality, reality coming back to him to whack him across the head. _What am I doing?_ , he asked himself, taking in the sight of Noctis’ kiss-bitten lips and rosy cheeks, _He’s my employer_.

  
He couldn’t exactly deny he hadn’t thought about this scenario before; things had played differently in his head, though, because what had actually happened was that Noctis had lunged from across the table to kiss him gently on the lips, and not the other way around, like Ignis had spent so many moments imagining. _Noctis_ had kissed him. And told Ignis he liked him back.

  
“We can’t, Highness, I-” Ignis said, and it seemed that it was the very beating of his heart making him stutter like that, “We can’t.”

  
Noctis’ only response was to lick Ignis’ lower lip, and Ignis couldn’t not give in to that, could he? Oh, to Hell with manners and duty, Ignis thought as his fingers laced with Noctis’ locks, and his lips hovered yet again over his Prince’s.

  
_Maybe I’m not as unlucky as I’d thought._

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on twitter @ tabetainoct for more ffxv content


End file.
